This article is written by Sudhir, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.

But now, the voice has gone to distant lands unknown, where our call will not reach, and his voice will not come back again. It seems like a thing of yesterday that I saw him perform live on Doordarshan; or that I read about another award in the Filmfare magazine, that he had stood up and walked up to receive. The mind simply does not believe that he has not been with us mortals for the past almost four decades. कहाँ से ले के आएँ, अपने बूते की बात नहीं॰ ॰ ॰ दिल को ही समझाना पड़ता है।

Moving forward with the series of duets – I have to skip ‘ई’ because no duet song starting with this vowel is available. So I come to ‘उ’, as the starting letter for today’s song.

As I was searching for such a song, I came across this song from ‘Khaamosh Sipaahi’ of 1950, and I listened to it in complete amazement. And I listened to it again and again, and again. The composition by Hansraj Behl – it is so unique and so different, that I wonder whether such an arrangement has been attempted in any other songs.

The leading voices in this ‘duet’ song are of Rafi Sb and Geeta Roy/Dutt. But the entire song is arranged as a chorus song. The individual voices of the lead singers are not heard separately even once. There are lines by the chorus of male voices, and there lines by the chorus of female voices, and then there are lines by chorus of male plus female voices. The beauty and the redeeming feature of this singing is how the various voices have been arranged. When the male chorus is heard, then Rafi Sb’s voice is very clearly discernible a little above the chorus of male voices. When the female chorus is heard, then Geeta Roy’s voice is clearly discernible a little above the chorus on female voices.

I am not able to immediately recall another song which has been arranged with such meticulous attention to the sound of the lead voices in a chorus of voices. Really beautifully done.

And the words by DN Madhok Sb, they simply take one along with the emotions of an army preparing for battle. Yes, that is right, this song has been designed as a slow paced marching song of the warriors.

I have no information about this film – ‘Khamosh Sipahi’, and I request our more knowledgeable friends and readers to please add more information about this film and the picturization of this song. But the words indicate that it is a song that is exhorting people for a struggle. Given the time period (1950), it would seem that the song is urging the warriors, either for the freedom struggle or maybe the first invasion of Kashmir by Pakistani marauders (in 1948). Maybe it is the freedom struggle – the refrain of the song is

utho bulbulotod do teeliaan

The words are urging the timid and frail nightingale birds, to rise and break the ‘teeliaan’. This word ‘teeliaan’ here refers to the wooden twigs or splinters that are used to make cages for small birds.

The song, slow paced as it is, it still has a very exhilarating effect on the mind and the heart. The slow pace is almost a haunting that takes over the mind. And the mind wants to listen to this sound again and again. Such a wonderful creation – and I would lay all the kudos on Hansraj Behl for the composition, the arrangement of the minimal music, and such a beautiful play of chorus voices entwined around the lead voices – it is simply amazing. There is some leading violin music, but after that when the singing starts, there simply is no music except for a very low rhythm of drum beats. The entire creation is so enchanting.

Just listen to this, and be amazed.

PS: There is one word in the lyrics of the first antaraa, that I am not sure that I have got it correct. Maybe it is, maybe the meaning fits in, or maybe not. I request other readers to please help confirm or correct this word. 🙂

This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.

Today (15 august 2017) is the 71st Independence day of India.

This is the tenth independence day for the blog. In addition, we have also had nine republic days. We have discussed a few patriotic songs on all these 17 national days. So one can imagine the number of patriotic songs that we have covered in the blog so far. The count of patriotic songs in the blog shows 106 songs as of now !Read more on this topic…

This article is written by Sudhir, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.

This song is the 100th duet of Rafi Sb and Geeta Dutt to be posted here on our blog.

As I was browsing the net earlier in the day, checking for articles and source material on Guru Dutt, I came across this she’er (couplet) which was written by the poet Kaifi Azmi in 1964, on hearing the news of Guru Dutt’s demise.

It is true, no one comes in this world
To reside for ever
But the way you departed
No one even leaves that way
Granted that the brightness of flame
May have inflicted painful burns
But still, no one douses the lamp
Before the night comes to an end

Remembering Guru Dutt, the vital genius of Hindi cinema, on his anniversary today (9 july 2017). Had he been alive, he would have been 92 today.Read more on this topic…

This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.

“Riyaasat”(1955) was directed by Jaswant Jhaweri for Roopkamal Chitra, Bombay. The movie had Mahipal, Mala Sinha, Sunder, Kamal, Hiralal, Prakash, Babu Raje etc in it.Read more on this topic…

This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.

This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.

Today’s song is from film Chaalbaaz (1958).

What an year 1958 was, in terms of musical films ! Most Music Directors had offered their best songs in this year. The popular playback singers were very busy and the musicians and the arrangers had a field day, running from this studio to that studio for rehearsals and recordings. The films that came in 1958 were full of wonderful music and one can not make choices in those films. Not only that but there was a variety of different Genres of films on offer. Historical, Costume, stunt,Mythologicals, social, Comedy….you name it and you would have it. A grade, B grade and C grade… all grades of films had A grade music. An example to quote would be “Hamen to loot liya mil ke husn walon ne…”a very popular qawwali from a C grade film like “Al Hilal “- 58.Read more on this topic…

This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.

This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.

This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.

This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.